4/30/2023 – | Last updated: 4/30/2023 03:49 AM (Makkah)
The owner of the Russian military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, threatened to withdraw part of his militants from the Bakhmut front in eastern Ukraine – where the battles continue – in the event that the Russian army did not deliver the necessary ammunition. This comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that he carried a gun and would have fought to the death if the Russians stormed the presidential residence in Kiev at the beginning of the war.
Prigozhin said in an interview with Russian journalist Semyon Begov on Saturday that Wagner's fighters had imposed control over most of the city of Bakhmut, indicating that they had a shortage of ammunition.
He pointed out that the Russian army's warehouses are full of ammunition, warning that the current situation portends what he described as Wagner's demise after a short period, noting that his company requested 4 thousand ammunition for his fighters, although the clashes require 80 thousand ammunition per day, according to him.
Malik Wagner confirmed that the Ukrainian army is constantly sending reinforcements to the Bakhmut front, while ammunition has been cut off from Wagner's militants, indicating that he has sent a letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, informing him of the problem of ammunition shortages. Prigozhin has repeatedly spoken in recent months about the lack of ammunition among Wagner fighters.
Regarding the developments in the situation in Bakhmut, Malek Wagner said that his fighters advanced 100 to 150 meters in the city of Bakhmut yesterday, Saturday.
He pointed out that only about 3 square kilometers of the city's lands remain under the control of the Ukrainian forces, as he put it.
Prigozhin said on his Telegram account that Wagner's losses amounted to 92 fighters, indicating that the losses could have been five times less if the required ammunition had been available, as he put it.
On the other hand, the spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces on the eastern front, Serhiy Cherivati, said that Russia cannot cut off the Ukrainian supply routes leading to the city of Bakhmut, which has been subjected to great destruction. He stressed that despite the fighting on the road linking Bakhmut to Chasev Yar, the Russians did not succeed. In disrupting the logistics services of the defenders, according to his announcement.
Shirivati explained that the provision of supplies, weapons and ammunition is insured. Ukrainian forces are maintaining their positions along the road and engineers have already built new roads to Bakhmut. "All this allows us to continue to control Bakhmut," he said.
The Ukrainian General Staff, in its situation report, also spoke of "unsuccessful attempts" by Russian forces to make gains in the region.
Zelensky "The Fighter"
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he carried a gun and would have fought to the death with his inner circle if the Russians had stormed his presidential residence in Kiev at the start of the war.
"I know how to shoot. Can you imagine (a news headline like) the Russians capturing the president of Ukraine? This is a disgrace. I think this would have been a disgrace," Zelensky told 1+1 TV channel.
In the first days after the start of the war on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian officials said that Russian intelligence units tried to storm Kiev but were defeated and failed to reach Pankova Street in the city center, where the presidential offices are located.
On the other hand, President Zelensky said that restoring Crimea from Russia depends on Kiev continuing to obtain Western weapons.
The Ukrainian president also blamed Russian soldiers along with their commanders for war crimes in Ukraine, one day after a deadly missile attack on his country.
"Not only the leaders, but all of you are terrorists and murderers, and you must all be punished," Zelensky said in his daily video address on Saturday night. He pointed out that everyone who directs and launches missiles and maintains planes and ships for terrorism is complicit in the war dead.
Zelensky's comments came in the wake of a rocket attack on the city of Uman on Friday that killed 24 people. Among them, according to Zelensky, six are minors.
Kherson bombing
In the meantime, the Ukrainian Kherson authorities announced at dawn today that the center of the southern province was subjected to heavy Russian bombing.
And the authorities of Kherson Province (southern Ukraine) reported earlier that two people were killed and others were injured as a result of the continued Russian bombing of the province. She said that the Russians bombed Kherson more than 100 times during the past hours, using heavy artillery and drones, and that residential areas and a hospital were targeted.
In other field developments, Reuters quoted local officials in the Russian Bryansk region as saying that two civilians were killed in the bombing of Ukraine that targeted a village in the region. For its part, the Russian Novosti Agency announced that two people were killed and four wounded in a Ukrainian bombing that targeted the city of Yasinovataya in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
Electricity was also cut off from 5 Russian villages on the border with Ukraine as a result of Ukrainian bombing, and the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, adjacent to the border with Ukraine, announced that electricity was cut off from 5 villages in the region. He added that "the power lines were damaged," and that the residents of the village and 4 other villages were "without electricity," and explained that "according to preliminary information, there were no casualties."
Crimea fire
In a related context, a large fire broke out yesterday, Saturday, in an oil depot in Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula – which Russia annexed in 2014 – due to what the local authorities said was an attack by drones.
Ukrainian intelligence said that the attack was a response to the killing of 24 Ukrainians in a bombing targeting the city of Uman.
And RBC Ukraine reported that a Ukrainian military intelligence official said today, Saturday, that more than 10 oil product tanks with a capacity of about 40,000 tons were destroyed in an explosion "in the port of Sevastopol – which is occupied by Russia – today."
These strikes – which were described as the first Russian attack of its kind in nearly two months – came at a time when Kiev says it has completed most of the preparations for a major attack on Russian forces.
